ExperienceISMyISM: My experience + your experience = our experience.: Kombucha Tea 101

Home Kombucha Tea (KT) Brewing 101

Forward: This is really an easy process, so try not to overcomplicate things or become overwhelmed by the length of this manual! I’m being pretty thorough with these instructions, but after you walk through these steps on your own you will understand how simple this process truly is.

A certain level of cleanliness/sterility is necessary to succeed and avoid cross contamination. This is not a huge risk, because the natural acidity of Kombucha Tea makes it very difficult for other bacteria/mold/fungus to grow… It’s just something to be mindful of.

Try not to use regular soaps for cleaning purposes, as soap has naturally antibacterial properties to it, therefore giving it the potential to kill the “B” part of the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast). I like to use white, distilled vinegar and hot water to sterilize bottles/pots/jars/other utensils you might use. Kombucha Tea in its final form is pretty acidic, and does not react well with metal/some plastics. Avoid using metal or plastics for any long term storage purposes.

Some Definitions:

SCOBY- Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. This is what makes the Kombucha tea through a process of fermentation! The SCOBY is an off white to brown disc that is solid and has a thick/leathery consistency.
Base Tea: Brewed black or green tea that is sweetened with white sugar. This will comprise most of the mixture that will eventually be converted from plain tea -> Kombucha Tea.
Starter Tea: Starter Tea is really just previously brewed KT. This is required to start every batch of KT that you make. The SCOBY thrives in an acidic environment, and the base tea alone does not provide the proper levels of acidity to start the fermentation process. Adding the Starter Tea raises the base tea’s acidity to a level conducive to brewing KT.

Step 1: Materials

1 gallon glass containers for brewing purposes. Ask friends, check online, craigslist.org, yard sales, thrift stores and at your local grocer. Sometimes you can find 1gal glass jars of pickles or other weird foods to recycle. You only need one glass jar, but having several will never hurt and ultimately make this process easier down the line. This, believe it or not, is the hardest step! 1 gal glass jars are surprisingly hard to come by!
KT SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) and ~16oz of “starter tea”.
Find a nice tea (black or green, fancy or plain, whatever you want, really) to use as your Base Tea. You will later add your KT SCOBY + Starter tea to this. I like to use organic tea, a huge box can be found at Whole Foods for ~$4.
You will also need something to sweeten this base tea with. White sugar is fine, organic white sugar is better. Figure 1 cup sugar/gal of KT. You don’t need much…
Some glass bottles to use after the process is done. This is not absolutely necessary, but bottling will ultimately result in carbonation, if that’s what you are going for, and a nice/portable final product.
A clean dish cloth/towel and a large rubber band.

Step 2: Making your tea base

a. Boil ~ 1 gallon of distilled/filtered water. Pour hot water into your 1gal glass jar.

b. Add tea bags to taste. Usually 8-12 bags will suffice for 1 gallon of water, but you can use less or more as you see fit.

c. After the water/tea has cooled a bit, add ~1 cup of sugar. This IS NECESSARY because it is required for the fermentation process, and to feed the SCOBY.

d. Cover the jar of tea/hot water and leave it out until it cools to room temperature. It can take a few hours for so much hot water/tea to cool, so it’s sometimes a good idea to start this process a little while in advance. The idea is that when you add your KT SCOBY + Starter Tea to your 1 gal of Base Tea + Sugar the two mixtures will be the same temperature.

a. NOTE: You may need to pour some of your base tea + sugar out before the next step. When you combine everything (Base Tea + Sugar + SCOBY + Starter Tea) you don’t want the jar to be overflowing. In fact, you should plan to have about 3-4 inches of space from the top of the jar after everything is combined… This will leave adequate space for your NEW SCOBY to grow, and will avoid splashing/sloshing/spilling when you move your jar of tea around.

Step 3: Combining your Base Tea + Scoby + Starter Tea

After the base tea has cooled, go ahead and place your SCOBY into the 1 gallon jar with your base tea. You can use bare hands to handle the SCOBY, just make sure they’re clean!
Gently poor the starter tea into the 1 gallon jar of base tea + SCOBY. Dont worry about mixing everything.
Cover the jar with your clean dish towel and use the rubber band to secure the towel around the neck of the jar. It is important to NOT seal the jar of tea while it is brewing because the SCOBY is a living and BREATHING thing, and will need oxygen to facilitate the brewing. The purpose of putting the towel over the top is to keep stuff out of the tea while still allowing oxygen to enter the jar.
Store in a safe, dark, warm place. Somewhere that wont be disturbed is ideal. Avoid sunlight. Avoid cool/cold or drafty places.

Next: Wait ~2 weeks for the magic to happen and YOU’RE FINISHED! Bottle your tea individually or drink it straight from the jar you brewed it in! Flavor your tea or drink it plain, it’s all up to you!

Next AFTER next: You might have noticed me mention in step d./a. that there will be a NEW SCOBY. Part of the magic of the process is that each time you brew a batch of tea the SCOBY divides and forms a NEW one (sometimes referred to as a “Baby”). Sometimes they end up growing on top of one another, so it takes a bit of finesse the separate them. They are pretty resilient though, so don’t worry too much about being extra delicate. At this point in time you can choose to separate them or leave them together. If you separate them you can then start 2 gallons brewing at a time, or continue on with 1 gallon at a time and give your new SCOBY baby away to a friend. :-D

Remember: Starter tea is necessary for every new batch of KT. Be sure and put some aside after each time you brew it, usually before the bottling process.